ABC News Online , 14th February 2018

Summary published: 3rd May 2018

Complaint:

Nine complainants raised various concerns about coverage of corporate tax rates in two News Online stories: a news story examining why many large Australian companies do not pay corporate tax and an analysis of proposed changes to company tax rates. The complainants alleged that the reporting was inaccurate and partial.

The ABC agreed that the original news story headline and ‘teasers’ for both stories written by the ABC’s business desk were materially inaccurate. Although not materially misleading within the broader context of the article, brief references in the news story to GPT and CSR’s sugar business were incorrect; and reference to Certified Practising Accountants (CPA) and Chartered Accountants ANZ (CAANZ) should have been excluded or presented with more context. The ABC promptly corrected the headline and the inaccuracies in the news story, and the teasers were removed from the homepage. The inaccuracies were also acknowledged on the ABC’s Corrections and Clarifications page.

The ABC acknowledged that at times the analysis article read as opinion content: the structure of the article and the conclusive language had the effect of unduly favouring the conclusion that there is no evidence to support Government claims that a corporate tax rate will increase investment and wages. As such, the piece did not meet ABC editorial standards for impartiality. The article was removed for review and republished with significant changes. An Editor’s note was prominently displayed at the beginning of the piece. In addition, ABC News management have implemented new procedures and responsibilities to increase editorial oversight for potentially complex and contentious stories.

Other aspects of the complaints were not upheld. Separate to this investigation, ABC News management undertook their own internal review of this coverage.

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